David Harbour Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics

David Harbour is an American actor. He is known for playing the role of Police Chief Jim Hopper on Netflix series Stranger Things. He has also done films like Hellboy, W.E., Quantum of Solace, Awake, War of the Worlds, etc. Starting from 1999, he has also done many theater plays.

Robert A. Ellis (Paternal Cousin) (Works in Health Care at Medical University of South Carolina)

Manager

David is repped by –

ICM Partners

Principal Entertainment, NY

Authentic Talent and Literary Management

Peikoff Mahan Law office, New York

Build

Average

Height

6 ft 2¾ in or 190 cm

Weight

90 kg or 198.5 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Maria Thayer (2008–2011) – David was rumored to be formerly engaged with the fellow actress, Maria Thayer. At the age of 33, David talked about planning his wedding to Maria in an interview but broke up with her abruptly soon after due to unknown reasons.

Julia Stiles (2011–2015) – David most probably met actress Julia Stiles while filming the movie, Between Us (2012). The couple was frequently spotted by the paparazzi hanging out in public, be it red carpet events, shopping or strolling in the streets. They dated for nearly 4 years and lived together in New York City.

Alison Sudol (2018–present) – David confirmed his relationship with singer, songwriter, and actress, Alison Sudol during the awards season in January 2018. The couple made multiple appearances at various red carpet events together and kissed for the benefit of the paparazzi. In March 2018, David accompanied Alison to her expedition to Antarctica organized by Greenpeace and both of them shared their experiences on their respective Instagram accounts. The actor has acknowledged during an interview that he easily gets carried away in a relationship. He enjoys the fantasy of being in a romantic relationship better than the routine of being in one. He confessed that he is primarily attracted to women who are intelligent and introspective and have a unique perspective of viewing the world.

David Harbour in a selfie with Hawkins Police Department members in December 2016 (David Harbour / Instagram)

Race / Ethnicity

White

David has English, German, Scottish Irish, and Northern Irish ancestry.

David shared on Don’s blog that he was a chubby child growing up who got lean for his first play after finishing college which was the last time he ever took his health seriously until after he turned 40.

From the age of 26 to 40, David struggled to maintain a consistent, serious routine in the gym and did not really care much for working out.

As far as his diet is concerned, on an average day, he eats

Breakfast – He typically starts his day with a cup of coffee accompanied occasionally by a cigarette and a bagel with cream cheese, tomato, onion, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Lunch – He prefers a thick cheeseburger with Vermont sharp cheddar cheese on a sesame bun and tater tots on the side.

Dinner – He prefers to eat his dinner at ABC Kitchen, NYC where he orders a series of food items such as peekytoe crab bread, ricotta and jam bread and roasted carrot avocado salad without any caution of the total calorie count.

On the sets, David eats whatever is being served by the catering company on hire.

Merriam-Webster tweeted David’s dancing GIF from Stranger Things Season 2 and used it as an example to define dad bod (an out of shape family man) which went viral.

The actor auditioned to play the role of an obese character named Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) in the early 2000s but got rejected for the role because the makers of the movie thought he had too much belly fat and did not have the fitness to carry a heavy body suit of fake fat. The role eventually went to Canadian actor, Kevin Durand who is much leaner and fitter than David.

After bagging the role of Hellboy in Hellboy reboot, David hired Don as a personal trainer to quickly build more strength and power to believably play the role of a superhero.

His trainer put him through a conventional bodybuilding program to gain lean mass coupled with explosive strength moves using heavy medicine balls and kettlebells to build functional strength.

David performed short duration high-intensity cardio to torch fat which would allow greater visibility of his newly developed muscle mass.

He generally has no interest in living on a restricted diet of chicken and broccoli to stay shredded. So, after filming for Hellboy was over, the actor returned back to unrestricted normal diet.

He says that he needs his Snickers bar and a glass of Coke to get through long and difficult hours of working that sometimes require 4 am wake up calls. Although he is willing to limit junk food to some extent out of concern for his age.

The two exercises David recommends to get lean fast are heavy sled pulls and pushes 20 minutes a day and crawling back-and-forth and side-to-side on the floor on all fours with knees off the ground for another 20 minutes.

David Harbour Facts

The actor developed an attraction towards acting at the age of 5 and started participating in theatrical productions seriously at the age of 14.

He confessed that he had a crush on Winona Ryder when he was in high school.

During his childhood, David saw Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) about 13 times in the theatre.

He claimed he always felt like a bit of a misfit since early childhood and teen years and acting was the only way he could understand and empathize with unpredictable human nature.

Being an awkward teenager and a young adult in his 20s, David never saw himself getting cast in lead roles played by good-looking actors such as Brad Pitt, Josh Hartnett or Jake Gyllenhaal. His career aspiration was to play character roles such as those played by Jack Nicolson and Gene Hackman.

He started his acting career on Broadway in 1999 when he was cast in the revival of The Rainmaker.

While struggling for acting jobs, David worked as a waiter and was not very good at his job. He deliberately did not find a side job that would earn him a comfortable living because that would have greatly increased his temptation to give up on acting permanently.

David won the Best Actor Tony Award nomination in 2005 for his performance in the play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

His paternal grandfather lived in conservative Texas and was upset when David played a gay character in Brokeback Mountain (2005).

David finds a lot of inspiration in the 1980s character of Indiana Jones and Steven Spielberg movies of that era. He shared that his character of Jim Hopper in Stranger Things is heavily influenced by them.

He did not expect to get cast as Chief Hopper in Stranger Things because he is not used to getting cast in starring roles.

Neither the makers nor the actors in Stranger Things expected the show to achieve the mega-hit success and popularity it achieved. The management also allowed them the absolute creative freedom to film the series in Atlanta because they were also expecting to cancel the show after one season.

While Jim’s character was conceptualized by the makers of the show, David contributed the idea of wearing a hat and a bracelet by the character’s daughter as a part of Chief Hopper’s identity.

Joe Keery on the sets of Stranger Things makes David laugh so hard all the time that the actor claimed he would never get any work done if there were a greater number of scenes between Joe’s and David’s character on the sets.

A fan requested David to pose with her in her school’s Senior Yearbook photos on Twitter. The actor asked for 25k retweets to make that happen in jest. When the fan actually fulfilled that goal, the actor kept his end of the bargain and clicked pictures with her holding a trombone and wearing her high school sweatshirt.

While playing the character of Achilles in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida in a prestigious theatrical production in NYC, the actor ironically pulled his Achilles tendon and was on crutches for a few months.

Within 30 days of filming Hellboy in Bulgaria, David had endured 70 plus arduous make-up applications.

David likes dark and complex portrayal of mainstream superhero characters. He tried to recreate Hellboy, in a fashion that he identifies with Deadpool (2016) and Logan (2017).

He is a long time student of more than 15 years of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s acting teacher, Tony Greco.

David considers Al Pacino a close friend and mentor who makes him laugh a lot. They have worked together on two Broadway plays.

He is extremely scared and intimidated by the ocean. He also feels terrified by any unknown or mysterious phenomena.

David often feels disappointed by the Hollywood definition of sexiness primarily displayed through physical perfection. He finds authentic, self-secure people who are comfortable in their natural appetite and have an average body type way sexier than those seen in the movies.

Although the actor has been a part of several high profile movie projects such as Brokeback Mountain (2005), War of the Worlds (2005), Revolutionary Road (2008), Quantum of Solace (2008), State of Play (2009), The Green Hornet (2011), The Equalizer (2014), and Suicide Squad (2016); his minor roles never won him any recall value among the masses until he was cast in Stranger Things.

In 2015, David reached out to help a woman with mental health issues who lived in the shelter system by letting her stay in his Manhattan apartment. He was very distressed to find out that when he left for his Toronto premiere of Black Mass movie, she jumped from the window of his home and committed suicide.

His acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards for an Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble cast in a drama series for Stranger Things went viral on YouTube.